Bone Music

a (semi-)historical comic about jazz, teen rebellion, and ghosts

The ‘stilyagi’ of 1940s-1960s Russia rebelled against the iron grip of Soviet censorship by embracing what they could of Western culture. They obsessed over American jazz and rock, but since the music was banned in the USSR, they were forced to get creative.

Using discarded x-rays, they would use the x-rays for makeshift vinyl and record contraband music onto the surface, creating illegal records. The sound quality was poor, but the records were cheap, the materials were plentiful, and the spread of Western culture grew exponentially, even as the stilyagi risked heavy prison sentences (or worse) to make these records, which came to be known as “bone music.”